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A SINFONI view of circum-nuclear star-forming rings in spiral galaxies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2007

Jesús Falcón-Barroso ,
Torsten Böker ,
Eva Schinnerer ,
Johan H. Knapen  and
Stuart Ryder
Jesús Falcón-Barroso
Affiliation:
European Space and Technology Centre, Keplerlaan 1, 2200 AG Noordwijk, The Netherlands email: jfalcon@rssd.esa.int
Torsten Böker
Affiliation:
European Space and Technology Centre, Keplerlaan 1, 2200 AG Noordwijk, The Netherlands email: jfalcon@rssd.esa.int
Eva Schinnerer
Affiliation:
Max-Planck Institut für Astronomie, Königstuhl 17, D-69117 Heidelberg, Germany
Johan H. Knapen
Affiliation:
Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, Via Láctea s/n, E-38200 La Laguna, Spain
Stuart Ryder
Affiliation:
Anglo-Australian Observatory, PO Box 296, Epping, NSW1710, Australia
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Abstract

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We present near-infrared (H- and K-band) SINFONI integral-field observations of the circumnuclear star formation rings in five nearby spiral galaxies. We made use of the relative intensities of different emission lines (i.e. [FeII], HeI, Brγ) to age date the stellar clusters present along the rings. This qualitative, yet robust, method allows us to discriminate between two distinct scenarios that describe how star formation progresses along the rings. Our findings favour a model where star formation is triggered predominantly at the intersection between the bar major axis and the inner Lindblad resonance and then passively evolves as the clusters rotate around the ring (‘Pearls on a string’ scenario), although models of stochastically distributed star formation (‘Popcorn’ model) cannot be completely ruled out.

Keywords

galaxies: spiralgalaxies: nucleigalaxies: stellar contentgalaxies: star clustersgalaxies: starburstgalaxies: individual (NGC 613, NGC 1079, NGC 1300, NGC 5248, IC 1438)
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 3 , Symposium S245: Formation and Evolution of Galaxy Bulges , July 2007 , pp. 177 - 180
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2008

References

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